Page:Early Christianity outside the Roman empire.djvu/50

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primitive Christian beliefs, so too Homily XVII Of the Messiah that He is the Son of God is an echo of one of the most remarkable sayings recorded in S. John's Gospel^[1]. The Homily, like so many that Aphraates wrote, is directed against the Jews, who complained that Christians worshipped a man whom they called Son of God, in defiance of God's own word I am God, and there is none beside me^[2] (§1).

Her. "The Father nods and the Son knows; The works by the Spirit are performed." Beyond such generalities Ephraim does not go.

"Confess that the Father is;	Do not confess that He can be defined.
Believe that the Son hath been;	Do not believe that He can be searched out.
Affirm that the Holy Spirit is;	Do not affirm that She can be examined.
That they are One believe and affirm;	And that They are Three do not doubt.
Believe that the Father is first;	Affirm that the Son is second;
That the Holy Spirit also is—	Do not doubt She is the third."

(Ephr. Opp. Syr. iii 194: the change of tense in the second line may be due to the exigencies of metre). The chief point insisted on by Ephraim appears to be the impalpability of the Spirit (e.g. iii 161).

1. Joh x 33—36. This Homily is translated in full by Dr Gwynn, pp. 387—392.
2. Cf. Deut xxxii 39.